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First-time buyers to get government help

Tony Blair today assured young couples struggling to buy their first home that the government was taking action to ease their plight.

Tony Blair today assured young couples struggling to buy their first home that the government was taking action to ease their plight.

Speaking in advance of this afternoon's major housing policy launch, the prime minister outlined plans to increase Britain's housing stock and help tenants acquire a stake in their property.

In a speech given in west London, he said that when Labour came to power in 1997, the most pressing housing concerns had focussed on mortgage rates and economic stability.

Those problems had been solved, he said, although he warned that the party must continue to guard against a "disastrous" return to the days of ten per cent interest rates.

The greatest concerns now were around house prices, in particular the difficulties young people faced in getting into the housing market, he added.

"If you are a young couple, struggling to make ends meet and get your feet on the housing ladder, it's very difficult.

"If you a first-time buyer it is very, very tough now."

He said the government wanted to increase the number of people owning their home, thus giving them a greater stake in society and more independence.

The five-year housing strategy - to be unveiled this afternoon by deputy prime minister John Prescott - would include action to help first-time buyers get their feet on the first rungs of the housing ladder, he said.

It would also give those in rented accommodation a flexible way of acquiring their own home. Where they could not afford to buy their house outright, they would be given the option of buying an "equity stake" in their home that they could build up over time.

Labour would also build new houses in a "careful, controlled, planned" way, he said.

"This is the only way [to ensure] that as housing prices rise, which they will do, they rise at a level which is not so great that people feel they are simply losing the chance to get into the market."

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